Talk to Him
by Mistress96
Summary: The action from Mission: Impossible meets the romance from Night and Day (Tom Cruz and Cameron Diaz) in this series. Two young adults find each other and their place in this world, nearly losing their lives in the process, several times.
1. Under the canopy

"Talk to him, Roxy."

"What?" Cecelia caught me off guard, probably because I couldn't take my eyes off this young man sitting at the bar, looking as distant as I must have to the outside world. But this wasn't any ordinary bar. This bar was under a canopy that had twinkling lights running up and down the ceiling. It was centered right on the shore line of Huntington Beach, California. The ocean, clear as day, rolled in and receded in the background. Tons of youthful adults cluttered around the stools and mingled as music played in the background. I was in my dream destination, I was living in the moment I had been fantasizing about for a year now, and all I could do was stare at this guy.

"I…I can't," I said, half aware of the words escaping my lips. What was I doing? What if he turned around and saw me with the pool of drool that had started to form on the table Cecelia and I were sitting at?

"Of course you can, hun! Look around!" I did so, seeing the scenery that still took me off guard at times. How could I be here? It was surreal to know I'd actually made it to this vacation.

"This is L.A baby! You're allowed to say, be, and do whatever and _whoever _you want! Including that gentleman right over there…" Cecelia's voice winked at me playfully, if that was possible.

I knew if I didn't listen to her, she'd use that tone, the one she uses when I'm being a chicken, or in other words, myself, and won't take a risk. Normally, I'd completely ignore her and her insane ways, but this time, I could see the underlining truth in her argument. This was not Canada. This was not Toronto. I was not at the office, being safe, timid, and perfectionist little Roxy Adams. No, I was here, with my best friend, at a fantastical bar under the moon light with a handsome man sitting all by himself fifteen feet away from me.

But despite my best attempts at seeing things her way, I still found myself coming up with excuses.

"But, look at him Cecelia, he's so good looking. There's no way he's here alone. I'm sure the girl he's with will be coming up to him any second now." I looked around for anyone who was coming towards him.

"Oh please, you've been staring at him for hours, so unless she went to the bathroom and fell in, he has no date."

I hesitated before answering.

"You're right, you're so right! Ugh but I can't do this! What if I say something stupid?"

"What are we, thirteen year old girls with month long crushes? You're never going to see him again kiddo! Just walk up to him with the confidence of knowing that if things go terribly wrong, you'll be back in Canada in another two weeks anyhow, and no one would have ever known."

I took a deep breath, looked Cecelia straight in her blue eyes, and said, "I'll do it."

"That's the spirit!" I hoped she would forever be praising me for what I was about to do. Cecelia was the one who did stuff like this, not me. Her light orange hair and bright blue eyes paired with her killer personality made her a stud magnet. If only I were so lucky. Long chocolate brown curly hair, green eyes, and the personality of a bunny rabbit was what I got stuck with. I don't have self esteem issues, I'm perfectly happy with my outward appearance and who I am, I just wished, especially in moments like these, that I had more of a dare devil side of me.

But this was it, it was time. I got up from my seat, and with all the courage I could muster, made my way for mister tall, dark, and handsome.


	2. Nate

_I'm really doing this, I'm really going to talk to him…_I got closer and closer, noticing the details of the guy I was pursuing. He had on khaki, tan coloured shorts, and a light blue button up that wasn't, well, buttoned up. His skin was a very light brown. From afar he just looked very tan, but now that I was getting closer, I realized he must be mixed with something. His hair was black, and curly, like mine, but in a more afro sense. Slowly, my brain started figuring out what all these little details meant, I was getting really close to him. So close now, that I'd either have to say something or fall back, or I'd look like a total idiot. I was literally at the bar now where he was sitting on a stool. I glanced at him, and one look was all it took for me to wig out and sit on the stool next to his, pretending to be ordering a drink. _Wait, what just happened? _What was I doing? I was ruining everything! I casually looked back in Cecelia's direction. She was fuming, motioning with her hands and mouth to talk to him. I was genuinely scared to go back to her without some solid proof that we conversed.

_Alright, time to stop being a coward ._ I looked to my left. He had a drink in front of him he was swirling around with a stir stick. He looked to be deep in thought. I took one last deep breath.

"Hi," I said, surprising myself with the amount of confidence I said it with. But what I wasn't ready for was when he looked up from stirring his drink, a little disoriented from being spoken to, and looked right at me.

"Hello," He said back, smiling.

Okay, I know obviously if you say hi to a person, odds are they'll say it back, but I just wasn't ready for it. When he looked at me, I saw the details of his face and body. Before, he looked really cute, _now, _he was gorgeous. His unbuttoned shirt revealed his physique. He had abs, that was for sure. I could also see his arm muscles protruding from under his shirt. His hair, though it was big, wasn't frizzy and huge, it was thick and full of tight curls that wound all over the place, bouncing when he moved his head. His complexion was amazing, his skin a very pale brown, or a very tanned white. And here was the kicker, his eyes. Green like mine, but in a whole different way. They were so contrasting against his hint-of-brown skin. Oh and his smile!- _Wait, what am I doing? I'm staring! I'm just sitting here, staring at him! Say something, anything! _I pleaded with myself. All words in the English language were failing me.

"Nice weather, huh?" _Are you serious, did you really just say that… Did you really just comment on the weather? _As soon as I was done here, I planned on finding a hole, crawling inside of it, and maybe dying.

The young man laughed.

"I…I mean, you know, it's not too humid, not too cool…"

"It's just right," He finished for me, laughing again. "I'm Nate." He offered his hand, and I shook it while breathing a sigh of relief.

"Roxanne," I filled in.

"Very nice to meet you, Roxanne," I couldn't help but smile back. "So what brings you to L.A? Business or pleasure? Or, do you live here?"

"Oh, no, I wish. This place is beautiful. Pleasure. I'm on a much needed and very postponed vacation. I couldn't imagine living in a place like this." I made reference to the city by looking at the outstretched ocean that seemed to stretch to the very ends of the earth.

"It's really something, isn't it? Clear blue water, swaying palm trees, the anticipation of possibly seeing a celebrity every time you go around a corner…." I laughed, feeling a little guilty of having that sensation.

"The beaches get a little crowded, and the night life can get crazy, but it's still my favourite place in the world."

"Wait, you live here?" I asked, feeling jealous before he even answered.

"Oh no, I just come here a lot. It's my favourite vacation destination. And judging by the amount of people here tonight, it must be everyone's favourite." I looked around. There were a lot of people.

"Yeah, I guess that's just a side effect of a severely over populated city."

"For sure. That's probably the only reason I don't move here," he said.

"I definitely agree. I like the peace and quiet I get at home." Thinking back to it made me anxious, but I wasn't about to mention that.

"Hmm, I see. And where is home?" He didn't say it like a prodding serial killer, not that I would know what that sounds like, he said it with a true sense of curiosity.

"That would be Toronto." I really hoped I wouldn't have to specify further where that was.

"Ah, so you're a Canadian. Must be nice to escape the weather up there," he commented.

"Yeah, it is. But I have to admit, I enjoy the snow. Well, at least on Christmas."

"Isn't Toronto a very populated city?" He asked.

"Yes, but I don't live right in the heart of it, I just work there. I live more on the outskirts, near the countryside. I don't ever tell people the actual town I live in because they have no clue where it is. I can't believe some of the people down here, a few didn't even know where Toronto was."

"That doesn't surprise me. Our generation is full of ignorance, especially the geographical kind." I giggled like a little girl. I couldn't help it. The guy actually sounded intelligent. Nate smiled genuinely back at me.

"So Roxanne, can I buy you a drink?" A new kind of smile played across my face.

"Yes, thank you Nate."

He motioned with the slightest twitch of his fingers to the bar tender, who responded very quickly.

"What'll it be, sir?"

"Rum and coke please," Nate answered.

"And for you, miss?"

"I'll have a margarita, thank you." He nodded his head and went to work.

Suddenly, I felt a jolt. I looked down and realized it was my phone, vibrating like crazy. I snuck a peek at the screen and saw five missed calls, three messages, and it had Cecelia's name written all over it. I looked back, seeing her freak out. This time I had no idea what she was trying to say.

"Will you excuse me for just a second?" I asked Nate.

"Sure, just as long as you come back," he smiled coyly at me as I blushed and walked away.

I casually walked to Cecelia, who had stopped freaking out and was now smiling excitedly.

"What have you guys been talking about? You've been over there for tenty minutes!"

"I know, I know! I'm sorry, I couldn't pull myself away." I admitted.

"What's he saying?"

"Oh not much, we're just chatting, about things…"  
"Mmhmm…" She waited for me to elaborate.

"He asked to buy me a drink," I said triumphantly.

"Really? Good, good. But what did you order?"

"Why does it matter?" I waited for the superficial answer that was bound to come my way.

"You don't want to order something immature, like a pina colada, or a Shirley temple which I know you like to do," she scolded.

"Hey, those are good drinks," I defended.

'Their children's drinks. Anyway, what did you order?"

"A margarita, relax 'celia." I looked over to Nate, who was waiting ever so patiently.

"Look, I really want to get back over there, is it okay if I leave you again?" Cecelia looked pretty bored, but nodded her head. I thanked her and walked away.

"Don't say anything stupid!" She yelled after me. I glared at her quickly and turned back around.

"Hey," I said as I slipped back onto my stool. Nate smiled and handed me my drink.

"Thanks," I accepted it and took a sip. He did as well. We sipped in silence for a few moments.

"So, while you were gone, I was thinking of all the things I've done here in L.A, and I realized I've never walked on the beach in the moonlight with a beautiful woman before." He said.

"Ah, so you want to use me to fill that experience, do you?" He shrugged his shoulders.

"If you wouldn't mind...?" A smile spread across my face. I got up, finished my drink, took Nate's hand, and walked over to the stairs that led to the shore.

"I'll take that as a yes," He said, laughing and following my lead. I wasn't sure where this courage was coming from, but I hoped it lasted.


	3. Exposure

Once we got close to the water's edge, we took off our sandals. I let the cool, moist sand scrape between my toes and engulf my feet. Our pace was slow enough so we could enjoy the scenery around us. I looked to my left, seeing the full silver moon cast its light upon the ocean surface. It shone and reflected the moon light, illuminating everything. The calming sound of water washing up on shore and falling back in a repeated cycle was helping me overcome my nerves. A huge wave sent water stretching as far as our feet were.

"Woah," I jumped, caught off guard.

Nate laughed, putting his hand on my back.

"Relax, its just water." I shivered.

"It's so cold!" Another wave sent water reaching for my toes. This time it wasn't so bad.

"See? It won't hurt you," he teased.

" I guess you've just gotten used to it, being out here all the time, swimming when it's dark, looking at this moon, every night….Ugh, you are so lucky."

"I'm not here that often. Maybe two or three times a year, when I can get away from work."

"And what kind of work do you do Nate?" It was strange, but when I asked him, I could see I had struck a nerve. He covered it up very well, but I saw the sudden glitch in his kind eyes, and I wanted to take the question back.

"Business man, I do a lot of travel." I could tell somehow that this was a practiced answer.

"Oh, I see," the first hint of awkwardness had made an appearance in our time together.

To make up for the sudden act of evasiveness and tenseness that followed, I elaborated on my own work.

"Well, in case you're wondering, I'm an assistant to most likely the most arrogant editor in all of Toronto, and possibly the country. It's been my dream since I can remember to be an editor. Having the chance to perfect people's written work, and connect to them through it, it just makes me excited, inspired even. But, I've been an assistant for maybe four years now, haven't once moved up, and I'm still working on completing my master's degree at U of T. I go to night school." I sighed, knowing I should have stopped talking a while ago, but something inside me drove me to continue. "I had a life plan, I had it all mapped out, and now it feels like that was just a childhood fantasy, you know?"

Nate was looking at me solemnly, truly listening to what I was saying.

"Things don't always go according to plan, but sometimes things end up working out better than we could have imagined, and you would have never known because you were blinded by what you thought you wanted, what you thought you needed." I considered Nate's words, wondering if that could be true.

I looked into Nate's eyes, and saw a hint of sadness.

"Do you believe that, or are you saying it to me because you _want _to believe that?" He then looked at me like I'd caught him off guard, and a smile broke out across his face.

"Roxanne, I have no idea what to say to that, and that is a rare thing." I smiled back. I wasn't trying to challenge him, and I'm glad he didn't take it that way.

"I like you Nate, you seem very…real. Not fake, like everyone else in this world." I told him. His smile grew faint. He looked down as he walked. Silence passed between us for a little while, and I was afraid I'd somehow struck another nerve.

"I lie about my job. In fact, I pretty much lie as a career." He looked up at me, testing the waters, seeing how I took this information.

I looked at him with as little judgment as I could manage. He continued.

"I've never told anyone this. I have to lie about my job. No one can know about it. It just makes it so much harder to meet new people, or to keep old friends. People get tired of you, always telling the same story, covering up with the same words. You start to seem less than genuine. I'm not real, Roxanne."

The words he'd just shared with me seemed to deeply trouble him, and I could tell that he truly trusted me. I stopped walking, putting my hand on his shoulder.

"Hey," I said. He stopped as well, looking down at me. "What you just said proves what I said. And the people who give up on you, the people who can't trust what you say and support you, _they're _the fake ones." Nate said nothing, just stared into my eyes.

"What's your last name?" He asked.

"Adams," I clarified.

"Roxanne Adams, I barely know you…" His hand twitched, like he wanted to make a move, but was very hesitant, probably afraid of my reaction. Maybe I was crazy, but my whole body was screaming for him to do it.

I stepped closer ever so slightly while keeping my eyes locked on his, so he'd know I felt comfortable. Then, slowly, and very cautiously, he leaned closer to me, and then… He stopped. Something caught his attention to the right of him, and suddenly, he shoved me to the ground.


	4. Chase

A short explosion of sound filled the air, one that seemed to be so far away and then right beside me in a matter of seconds.

"Get down!" Nate yelled, as the sound traveled towards us and disappeared in a heart beat. When my back hit the dry sand, I was too much taken off guard to be shocked by what was going on. Nate pressed his body on top of mine, and I started panicking.

"Get off me!" I yelled, trying to wiggle my way out from underneath him. How on earth could I have trusted a random stranger? Look at what I had gotten myself into…

Nate wasn't paying attention to my complaints or struggles, which by the way got me no where. He was strong, I couldn't wiggle my body at all. In one swift movement, he kept one hand to rest on me and used the other one to reach behind his back and take out…

A gun?

Shock filled me as I realized what was truly at stake here. Quickly assessing the situation, I saw that Nate was looking off into the distance, and had lifted his body off of me. His hand was the only thing keeping me down. I used the opportunity to break free from his force. I shoved his arm away, got up, and ran like a mad woman back down the beach the way we came, shouting and flailing my arms in all directions, trying to get someone's attention, or…maybe just going insane. As I saw the lights from the bar in the distance, I looked back in the direction I came, and saw nothing but a huge expanse of darkness. Nate wasn't emerging from this black hole. Despite this good news, I kept running like an Olympian until I couldn't breathe. I ran straight up the stairs and around in circles, searching for Cecelia. I found the table with my bag, but it was vacant, no sign of her anywhere. I panicked, ran up to my bag, and noticed a note folded over it.

_Roxy,_

_ Would have texted you, but my phone died. Went home with a sophisticated gentleman who offered to show me his beachside house over a glass of wine. Don't hate me, I'll be safe! Car keys are in your bag._

_ Love, Celia._

There had never been a time I needed Cecelia more. And she wasn't here. It wasn't her fault that this happened, although I had told her only a million times how unsafe it is to go home with men, not to mention undignified, and in my opinion, morally wrong. But this was no time to re think my relationship with my best friend. I had to get out of here. I grabbed my bag and ran out of the bar, down the opposite set of steps, and toward the parking lot.

It was a long expanse of powdery sand that turned into grass, which I saw would eventually turn into pavement. And what was even worse was the patch of forestry to the left of all of it, a perfect hiding place, and vantage point. Fear gripped me and wouldn't let me go, no matter how hard I tried to shake it off. I could feel my heart beating so loudly that it vibrated my whole body, but thank God for adrenaline, because it kicked in, and I sprinted for the parking lot that seemed a life time away.

As I ran, I spotted a dark figure to the far left of me. I kept going, knowing if I stopped I'd have no chance. But then, another figure behind the first came in sight. Then another. And now there were three dark figures making their way towards me, closing in very quickly. I tried to veer off to the side to buy myself more time, but now I couldn't see them. I tripped over a rock in my path and fell to the ground. Scrambling, I got up and kept going, I could now hear the figures behind me, literally on my heels.

"What are you waiting for? Grab her!" One said to another. I didn't dare look back. Tears were welling up inside the crevices of my eyes when I realized how close I actually was to death. Then that same explosion rang in my ears. The sound was definitely a gun shot.

My breath stopped at first. I thought I was hit, but then I felt one of the men behind me collapse on top of me, impeding me from running. I hit the floor in a painful, abrupt thud. I turned around to see a man with a bullet in his back, blood gushing from the wound. He lay there on top of me, dead. I screamed. More gun shots rang in the night sky. The tears had escaped my eyes and I struggled to get the mass of dead weight off of me. I heard more thumps as two more bodies hit the ground beside me. I tried to check the faces for Nate, wondering if maybe he had come with company, someone heard me screaming, and the police had shot them all. As if I was so lucky. I was wrong; Nate's face was not in the trio of bodies.

I was next. The thought could not escape me.

Were there four men at this bar with different agendas of raping and or killing women? I was scared, confused, and regretting every decision I had made in the past twenty four hours that had led me to this night. I kept screaming, trying desperately to get the man off of me. Tears were still flowing down my face as a sense of hopelessness set in.

I heard footsteps. Someone was running towards me. I called for help a dozen times, hoping it was a rescuer. The person came to my side, and when I looked up, there stood Nate, gun in hand, looking startled and apologetic. I was about to scream again for help, when I realized he was moving the man off my body. Then I put two and two together. He had shot the men chasing after me.


End file.
